Southbendtribune.com named best site in national contest

One award for local news, another for job listings.

One award for local news, another for job listings.

The South Bend Tribune won two first-place awards in the Suburban Newspapers of America's 2007 Local Community Web Site Contest:

Best Overall Local News Site, in national competition among daily newspapers with a circulation of more than 40,000.

Best Employment Site/Vertical, a category in which all classes of daily and weekly newspapers competed together, for The Tribune's sbtjobmatch.com.

Victor Ortiz, The Tribune's new-media director, said this is the Web site's first award from Suburban Newspapers of America, which represents and supports the suburban and community newspaper industry. SNA represents more than 2,000 newspapers with a total of more than 22 million circulation. Regarding the Best Overall Local News Site recognition, the contest judge said The Tribune's 24/7 News Page is what set its site above the pack. The 24/7 page provides short but interesting breaking news items constantly, said the judge, who also liked the tip line contact information at the top of the 24/7 page and home page. The 24/7 page was launched six months ago as a cooperative project among the three South Bend-based Schurz Communications Inc. media entities. The Tribune, WSBT-TV and WSBT Radio work together to gather and present breaking news on the site. The Tribune's Donna Rogers was in charge of organizing the site and now coordinates it. "This is a great honor for just being launched six months ago," Rogers said. "To be recognized for the hard work we're doing is great." Michelle Ottman, The Tribune's online editor, said that receiving the award shows that The Tribune's initiative is worthwhile and is paying off. The Tribune updates its site more than any other site in this area, including television, she said. "We've spent the past year re-training the newsroom to update stories, write stories as soon as they happen and get those on the Web first," Ottman said. Now, this award helps set the stage for the future. "It shows us that we're on the right track," Ottman said. The Tribune's other honor, Best Employment Site/Vertical, drew praises from the contest judge because it presented "an attractive, easy to use job search and resources site that includes a well-designed search results page." Users can search the site easily by job categories, location and managerial responsibility, the judge said. In addition, one of the resources, the Your Worth feature, allows users to identify whether their current or proposed compensation package is at, below or above the median for the job location. A "What-If" analyzer even allows users to try different job scenarios. And what really sets sbtjobmatch.com apart from other sites is its ability to do matching between employers and potential employees, said Mary Zenor, classified advertising manager for The Tribune. Zenor hopes the award will make people more aware of the site, where more than 24,000 people are already registered. "I know there are a lot of companies trying to provide this kind of service," Zenor said. "To be able to be recognized above that is, I think, quite an honor." Staff writer YaVonda Smalls: yavsmalls@sbtinfo.com (574) 235-6248